Pages

Thursday, March 14, 2013

30 Stream of Consciousness Truths

I have been doing a whole lot of thinking, reading, listening and pondering lately. And now, I feel like I'm going to explode with all these thoughts and ideas and impressions that have been coming to me. Now, because I can and because this is my blog, I'm just going to let them flow from me to you. Take from them what you will, but these 30 things are special to me. I am purposefully not elaborating too much.

Freedom is earned and kept, only upon the principle of discipline.

Obedience to God's Commandments and commandments, ultimately brings light to a person's eyes, and happiness and peace to their hearts.

There are few things more hopeful or happy than seeing a seedling sprouting out of the soil in which you planted it.

Life is a gift, and we should treat it as such. No matter how painful or dark or old or new.

Truth is truth is truth is truth. And yes, there is Eternal unchanging truth. Though messages of truth may be delivered in a manner unbecoming of the truth, truth still does not change. It's really important everybody find that truth and that we learn to share that truth in a manner that is becoming to that truth.

Motherhood is one of God's gifts to women.

Indoctrination of children should be left to the parents who love them, and parents who love their children do their best to imbue their children with the wisdom they have gathered over the course of their lives.

Pain is necessary if we ever wish to understand the richest heights of joy.

We should all be indignant at the blatant attacks on our natural rights and liberties by our tyrannical government right now. The cause of liberty is something upon which we can all unite. Studying and understanding the Constitution will fix the problem, and protect our ability to live in a society where people can still safely disagree.

Youth does not preclude one from receiving divine revelation or assistance.

We should make carefully-considered, righteous judgements about everything. God did send us here to test us to see if we could do just that. But, never forget that final judgement of individuals belongs only to God - and God alone.

If we cared as much about our spiritual nourishment as we do our physical nourishment, things would be a bit different.

As a father leads, so goes a family.

Anger is often a mask for sadness, which is often an expression of love.

You can't build upward unless you have a solid, principled foundation.

Not shrinking is more important than surviving.

There are problems in the world today. Very very big problems which often seem insurmountable. We should talk about them - uncensored and unafraid - so that others might also know why those problems are important. And then we should go to work with even more passion and determination to fix those problems - within the wall of our very own homes.

The addiction that you have, is the addiction that you need to get rid of.

There are on occasion principled and sometimes inspired reasons to break a rule or two, but there are even more principled and inspired reasons to keep them.

Timing and context is everything.

Be the person you want to be in 30 years, today.

Just because something is old, doesn't mean it isn't valuable and just because something is widely accepted doesn't make is acceptable.

Grating at a culture does little to unite or heal a people, but focusing on true principles in humility will bring about a new and better culture, Zion. But in the interim, a fabulous opportunity for perfecting the virtue of patience is available to everyone.

This isn't philosophical or anything - but I really miss some of my closest friends who I can no longer visit with in person. There are small holes in my heart now in each of their absences.

Avoiding extremism is really in vogue these days. So is avoiding speaking truth.

Direction is more important than position.

The best gift we give to ourselves and to others, is to dwell on and encourage the miracle that is every person's potential (including our own.)

Amanda - That one is from Elder Bednar's March fireside talk. It is about the attitude with which we face adveristy and our willingness to submit our will to God's, even when His will is not what we would choose. The talk is great and worth a listen. I enjoyed his wife's talk too. Hers was basically about how obedience will help us feel God's love for us. Here's the link: http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/ces-devotionals?lang=eng

Thanks for this, Jami. I think the one I'll work on today is: be the person you want to be in 30 years, today.

I'd be interested in more of your thoughts regarding the "indoctrination of children." This may be a simple matter of word choice, but my understanding of the word indoctrination implies that the pupil is meant understand without question (as opposed to to instruction or inculcation which, to my mind, leaves room for a lot of questioning, critical reasoning, and personal insight or revelation